Bradbury Interviews for Federal Job

Ventura County Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury has apparently made the short list of finalists the Bush administration is considering to fill the U.S. attorney’s post in Los Angeles.

Bradbury and Assemblyman Rod Pacheco (R-Riverside) were interviewed in Washington this week by a panel of White House and Justice Department officials. Sources said they join at least two prominent Los Angeles lawyers, Thomas E. Holliday and Vincent J. Marella, as remaining candidates for the top federal law enforcement job in Southern California.

The appointee will oversee federal prosecutions in seven California counties with 17 million residents--the most populous federal district in the nation.

“My understanding is that they’re at the end of the process,” said Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley), who has pushed Bradbury’s candidacy. “They’ve gone through a lot of names, and it’s narrowed down to two or three.”

At least 10 candidates were reviewed by an administration screening committee in Los Angeles during the summer. Holliday and Marella were flown to Washington several weeks ago, and Bradbury and Pacheco were interviewed at the Justice Department on Tuesday.

The candidates either could not be reached or declined comment.

Gallegly said he met with Bradbury after the Tuesday interview.

“It’s right down to the final crunch, and there’s no question that Mike has made it to the top rung,” Gallegly said. “I think Mike felt very good about [the interview].”

However, some analysts said they are not convinced that Bradbury, the district attorney in Ventura County since 1979, and Pacheco, a former prosecutor and onetime Republican leader in the Assembly, have leapfrogged over the others.

Loyola Law School professor Laurie Levenson, who worked in the U.S. attorney’s office for eight years, said she would be surprised if a lawyer without experience in the federal legal system were nominated by Bush.

“They would come to the position with no experience as a federal prosecutor or federal defense attorney,” she said. “Federal laws are different, the courts are different, the law enforcement agencies are different, the procedures are different, and even the criminals are different.

“It’s a hard job,” she added, “to get on-site training.”

Yet it does make sense that the White House would ferry Bradbury and Pacheco to Washington for interviews, she said, because each has strong support from Republican backers.

“They’re not in such a hurry that they can afford to ignore candidates of their own party,” Levenson said. “An interview doesn’t mean they get the job. It means the White House is interested in them, maybe for other positions, and maybe the [administration] gets some ideas for whoever the U.S. attorney is.”

Bradbury, 59, announced in September that he would not seek another term as district attorney in 2002. He has also been mentioned as a possible candidate for a federal judgeship, especially if a seat is moved from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara. He is a resident of Ojai.

Bradbury is highly regarded in Republican circles as a hard-nosed prosecutor and is a two-time president of the California District Attorneys Assn.

In Ventura, he runs an office with about 120 lawyers. Gallegly said that experience as a front-line prosecutor and administrator sets him apart from the other candidates because they have far less experience in both areas.

The U.S. attorney in Los Angeles supervises about 255 lawyers and interacts with several federal agencies.

“Mike has a record like no one else in the process,” Gallegly said. “He has 22 years of administrative experience and a staff of over 600.”

Sources close to the process said Holliday, 53, may still have an edge because he is a favorite of Gerald L. Parsky, a Los Angeles lawyer with close ties to President Bush and chairman of the Los Angeles screening committee.

A trial lawyer, Holliday has spent most of his career at the large firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, where he practices extensively in federal court on complex civil and criminal cases.

Marella, 55, served as an assistant U.S. attorney in Los Angeles from 1972 to 1977 and is a partner in the Century City firm of Bird, Marella, Boxer & Wolpert. He specializes in white-collar criminal defense and complex civil litigation.

Pacheco, 43, was an assistant Riverside County prosecutor for more than a decade. He was elected to the Assembly in 1996 and has served on the Judiciary Committee and was briefly the Republican leader.